AS A MATTER of fact, yes, I am the last ...

This was partly because of my massive disappointment in the show. Also, I was putting off a conversation that had to begin with my asking, "Do you know what John Cameron Mitchell Day is?"

"I have no idea what that is," Mitchell replies, sitting on the side of Highland Boulevard in Los Angeles because he doesn't like driving and talking on the phone.

And then I explain about April 11, 1986, when I went to see an afternoon screening of the new film Band of the Hand, and then watched the CBS revival of The Twilight Zone, both featuring young John Cameron Mitchell. He didn't make the same impression as Jenny Agutter in a sexy outfit, but I still remember thinking it was a big day in the Mitchell household.

"That is so weird," replies Mitchell. "Most interviewers just bring up my episode of MacGyver. It's sweet that someone cared about Band of the Hand. I actually thought I was going to become a big star from the movie. I thought, 'Well, I'll have to be discreet about being gay now.' Then the movie came out, had a big opening day, and disappeared."

Mitchell also doesn't mind that I didn't like any stage production of Hedwig, since the movie made me cry. "A lot of people like the movie better. It's a different experience. And the way that Hedwig would communicate with each audience would always affect the show. At the end, we were off-Broadway and charging huge prices, so we never got the crowd we wanted."

But now Hedwig is a never-ending franchise, with Mitchell promoting Wig in a Box, a tribute album on which the likes of Rufus Wainwright and Yoko Ono cover the soundtrack. "I'd had a break from Hedwig, so it's really a pleasure. And, besides, it's for the kids." Mitchell is referring to money being raised for the Harvey Milk School for Problem Bad Girls, or whatever the institution is called.

To his credit, Mitchell doesn't shy away from the notion that it's weird to have a privileged, segregated public high school for gay students. "I understand why some people are weirded out by that. It's kind of like being gay and getting out of the military. There are already hundreds of people on the waiting list, and the student/teacher ratio is great, too. That's not the way it should be, but, ideally, these kids would be going to school and not getting beat up."

In any case, the record's worth owning just for Mitchell's reunion with Stephen Trask on the gorgeous Hedwig outtake "Milford Lake." And it's your own damn fault if you ever get shook down by a cross-dressing high school student. Meanwhile, it's also to Mitchell's credit that he's stayed focused on acting and hasn't tried to parlay a rock career.

"That isn't really to my credit," he says. "I'm just so old now. I'm 40. I could barely tour when I was 21 and doing The Secret Garden. What's fun is that I get to meet all these bands. I've gotten to work with the Polyphonic Spree and the Breeders, and I've written a children's song with Neutral Milk Hotel. I'm still awed by the rock people. Movie people bore me."

He's not kidding, either. The host of IFC's Escape from Hollywood ("They let me say what I want, and I pay my rent without making a bad movie.") is getting far from any showbiz hotspot. "My next project is being done through improv, so that's a whole year-long process before we shoot. So you know how every Southern state has one town that you can actually relax in? I don't mean Atlanta. In North Carolina, it's Asheville, and I'm about to go down there to do yoga."

But that's after the Wig in a Box signing that he's heading off to now. The planned NYC benefit concert, of course, fell apart amongst some splashy booking problems. That only makes me wonder if Mitchell did anything special for himself on that big day in 1986, like maybe having friends over for popcorn.

"Oh, nothing like that. You know, the studio didn't even throw a party for the movie's premiere."

[jrt@nypress.com](mailto:jrt@nypress.com)